Machine for washing and cleaning gravel in gold-mining.



PATENTED SEPT. 8, 1903.

J. G. CAMP. MACHINE FOR WASHING AND CLEANING GRAVEL IN GOLD MINING.

APPLIOATION FILED MAY 1, 1908.

N0 MODEL.

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Patented september 8, i963.

PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES G. CAMP, OF SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA.

MACHINE FOR WASHING AND CLEANING GRAVEL IN GOLD-MINING.

.IEEGZFIGATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 738,408, dated September 8, 1903.

Application filed May 1, 1903. 391121 No. 155,126. (N0 model.)

To whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES G. CAMP, of Sacramento, in-the county of Sacramento and State of California, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Machines for lVashing and Cleaning Gravel in Gold-Mining, of which improvement the following is a specification.

The object of myinvention is to provide a machine of simple and durable construction by the employment of which gravel containing gold which is rusted or coated may be effectively and economically treated to loosen the cement from the gravel and scour the gold preparatory to the action thereon of the quicksilver in the sluice-box riffles and the waste which is experienced in the ordinary methods .of separating gold from cement, gravel, and other substances may be substantially eliminated.

The improvement claimed is hereinafter fully set forth.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is avertical longitudinal central section through an apparatus illustrating an embodiment of my invention Fig. 2, an end view in elevation as seen from the left; Fig. 3, a similar view asseen from the right; and Figs. 4, 5, and 6, transverse sections at the lines a a, I) Z), and c 0, respectively, of Fig. 1.

In the practice of my invention I provide a suitable supporting'frame 1, which may be of wood or metal, upon which a cylinder 2, of stout plate metal, is rotatably mounted, with its axis in or near a horizontal plane. The cylinder 2, which in practice may desirably be about thirty-three inches in diameter and fourteen feet in length, is closed at its ends by heads 3 4-, one of which, 3, is formed integral with or otherwise fixed to a central journal 5, which is mounted in a bearing 6, secured upon the frame 1. A. bearing-ring 7, which is trued off upon its outer surface, is secured on the periphery of the cylinder 2, adjacent to the end thereof which is closed by the head 3, said ring resting and turning with the cylinder on rollers S, journaled on the frame. The opposite end journal 5 of the cylinder is prolonged beyond its bearings (5 and carries a spur-gear 11, which meshes with acorresponding pinion 12, fixed on a countershaft 13, to which. power is applied from any suitable prime mover to effect the rotation of the cylinder at a comparatively slow speed, as, say, eighteen or nineteen revolutions per minute, by a belt passing around a drivingpulley 14, secured to the counter-shaft. A feed-hopper 9 is supported upon the frame above the end of the cylinder which is closed by the head 3 and is provided with a deliveryspout 10, the lower portion of which is curved to a quarter-turn and fits freely and centrally in the head 3, so as to admit of the rotation of the cylinder without disturbance of the relation of the delivery-spout thereto.

The interior of the cylinder 1 is divided by transverse retainingplates 15, which are of L or angle section and are secured to the shell of the cylinder, into four sections A, B, C, and D, which are disposed consecutively in the order named from the supply end of the cylinder, or that into which the delivery spout 10 opens, to the opposite or discharge end. Each of the transverse retaining-plates 15 is made up of a plurality of pieces or sections, four being shown in this instance, and the pieces of each plate are separated by intervening spaces, as shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The section A, which may be termed the receiving-section, is provided with a plurality of lifting plates or bars 16, of angle-iron, which are secured longitudinally to the shell of the cylinder, said plates presenting liftingsurfaces for substantially the entire distance between the head 3 and the nearest transverse retaining-plate 15. The adjoining section B has a plain inner surface without 0bstructions or projections of any kind, and throughout the length of the next succeeding section C the shell of the cylinder is perforated with rows of small openings 17 for the passage of the small pieces of gold, gravel, debris, &c., into a sluice-box 18, which is located below and around the lower half of the section C and is provided with a dis charge-spout ll). The section D, which adjoins the head 41-, is of less length than the preceding sections, and large openings 20 are formed in its shell for the discharge of such solid matter as is too large to pass through the perforations 17 of the preceding section C.

111 the operation of the apparatus the cyl= inder 1 is slowly rotated and the gravel which is to be washed is dumped into the hopper 9,

ICO

' rated parts of the plate into the adjoining imperforated section B, along the plain surface of which the material slides, the weight of the cobbles assisting in scouring the gold and making it bright in spots. The pulp or finer gravel works through the spaces in the next succeeding retaining-plate into the perforated section 0 of the cylinder, where the cobbles again come in contact with it to break up any lumps of clay or cement that may have passed into this section and force them through the perforations 17 thereof.

The cobbles when introduced into the section A remain therein until they have accumulated sufficiently to allow subsequent additions of cobbles to pass over the retainingplate 15 at the left'hand end of this section into the next section B and thence to the exitopenings 20, the smaller portions of the material and the water passing into the sluicebox through the perforations 17.

The machine requires no attention after being started, and there being no members which are liable to breakage or displacement it is reliable and inexpensive in operation. In practice a machine having a cylinder of the dimensions hereinbefore mentioned has washed two hundred and five cars of gravel, each containing about five hundred pounds, in twenty-one hours and with less waste than was experienced in washers of more complicated construction, the capacity of which was only one-half the amount stated in the same time.

I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. The combination of a horizontally-arranged cylinder divided by sectional transversely-arranged retaining-plates into a re ceiving-section having tumbler-blades longitudinally arranged therein, a plain unobstructed scouring-scction,'a foraminous separating-section and a discharging-section, with a feed-spout leading intothe receivingsection, and means revolving said cylinder on its axis.

2. In a machine for washing and cleaning gravel,the combination of a rotatably-mounted cylinder, a feed-spout leading into one end thereof, and transverse retaining-plates dividing the interior of the cylinder into sections,thefirst of which,adjoining the deliveryspout, is provided with longitudinal liftingplates, the second of which is imperforate and unobstructed, the third of which is provided with perforations for the escape of water and of the smaller portions of the material treated, and the fourth of which is provided with discharge-openings of larger diameter for the passage of the larger portions of the material treated.

3. In a machine for washing and cleaning gravel, the combination of a cylinder, a journal fixed to one end thereof and mounted in a bearing, rollers supporting the opposite end of the cylinder, driving mechanism for rota-t ing the cylinder, a head closing the end of the cylinder adjoining the supporting-rollers, a feed -hopper having a feed-spout fitting freely in said head, a plurality of transverse retaining-plates fixed to the shell of the cylinder and dividing it into communicating sections, longitudinal lifting-plates fixed to the shell of the cylinder in the receiving-section thereof, or that adjoining the delivery-spout, perforations, for the escape of treated material and Water, in a section of the cylinder separated from the receivingsection by an imperforate and unobstructed space or section, and discharge-openings, of larger diameter, in a section of the cylinder adjoining that which is provided with the smaller escape-perforations.

JAMES G. CAMP.

Witnesses:

A. M. SEYMOUR, AROHIBALD YELL. 

